Willits students and administrators weigh in on school shootings

In the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School just outside of Boca Raton Florida on Feb. 14, the faculty and administrators at Willits High School were preparing to go over the school’s revised safety plan at a staff meeting on Tuesday.

“A lot of teachers and students are concerned,” said Assistant Principal Marian Lohne, adding that teachers were having conversations in the classroom about spotting warning signs and about the importance of students notifying adults if they suspect anything is wrong.

Lohne said every school in the Willits Unified School District has a school safety plan for all sorts of purposes, including how to deal with an intruder on campus. She said although every teacher gets trained on what the proper procedures are, there has been a recent change.

Whereas in the past a complete campus shutdown may have been instituted in these type of emergencies, the procedure has changed to allowing students to run and flee as soon as a possible shooter is identified. Lohne said for Willits High the plan calls for students and staff to run down the railroad tracks and to eventually meet at a predetermined place: Willits City Hall.

According to Lohne, the school must reassess its safety plan on an annual basis, with the principal rewriting it according to new developments. She said although the superintendent meets with the hospital, the city, the Willits Police Department and other first respondents on a regular basis, she has received feedback from teachers and the community that more social and emotional support and services are needed.

“We have one psychologist for our entire school district,” she said.

The school’s safety procedures were put to the test the following day when a student made a threatening remark and was removed from campus.

According to a social media post Wednesday night, WUSD officials stated the incident had been turned over to the Willits Police Department.

Superintendent Mark Westerburg wrote he was not able to release details about the student, but school officials were taking the comments seriously and were cooperating with law enforcement.

Westerburg followed up on Thursday morning stating via Facebook that the student who made the comments at the high school had been taken into police custody.

“We will still be on alert this morning to show the seriousness of any situation like this and to show students we are 100 percent dedicated to their safety,” Westerburg said.

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According to a Willits Police Department post regarding the incident on their official Facebook page, there was no direct threat, but the student responsible for the utterances had been taken into custody for other reasons and would be in custody for some time.

Some parents commenting on social media wrote they were disappointed and angry school officials had not notified the parents about the incident earlier, while others praised the collaboration between the district and the WPD.

At nearby Sanhedrin High School, principal Jeff Ritchley said he employs a scanner which checks for metals and goes off for everything, including a set of keys, whenever students enter the school.

“We only have one point of entry and one point of exit,” he said. “The one thing that this school is allowed, and every student needs to sign is we have a contract. So all students upon their enrollment have to agree to this.”

The contract stipulates students in cars may be searched by administration at any time.

Ritchley said employing these tactics is not a daily occurrence, but they are necessary in addition to what he calls “positive participation” and engaging with students on a routine basis.

“They all know they can’t bring weapons to school,” he said. “The one day that we ever had the scanner, I don’t think they liked it, but they all did it. I made it so that I didn’t make anybody do it, I called it a positive participation. I didn’t make it a big deal, it was a new idea, it was a new thing.” Ritchley said he also makes it a habit to follow a philosophy of knowing what’s going on in the classroom and roaming the halls interacting with students.

“That’s my other biggest thing, I spend a lot of time hanging at hallways, talking to kids, greeting them at the door and making sure they are following the rules, making sure they don’t have any weapons,” he said.

Sanhedrin High senior, 17-year-old Kaylee Novo said she thinks marches like the national march planned for March 24 could also be seen locally.

“I think there’s a possibility of that happening. There’s been 18 school shootings since Jan. 1 and we really only learned about the Florida one because there was a mental illness case,” she said. “I think that will bring more awareness to mental illness and more people will be aware of gun safety and mental illness and more people might get help.”

Novo said she is also in favor of more education and awareness promoting safety.

“I would like to see our community come together and talk about gun safety, about how they keep their guns, where they keep their guns,” she said. “Talk about their kids’ mental illness because that was a big factor on why it happened. They should all just come together because we are a small community.”

Novo said parents should make sure they have their guns locked up where the kids can’t get to them.

“I don’t really have much against guns,” she said. “We have guns in our family but we also just got a really big safe for them and only one person in our family has the code and that’s my dad.”

Olivia Tobar, a 16-year-old junior at Sanhedrin High said she was in favor of student activism to counter gun violence in schools.

“I think it’s amazing, I think the marches are definitely a good idea,” she said and added that the school recently got metal detectors and she thinks it was a brilliant idea. She said she wants something to be done about the issue and there should be a bigger focus on solutions and awareness.

“It’s awful we should not be killing children, let alone anybody. So promote, no guns.”

Seventeen-year-old Willits High student Alexander Calderon expressed a succinct opinion about the issue.